For the last six August Bank Holiday Mondays I have used MindManager to assist me with the commentary and play the team’s anthems etc. at the Cheriton Sixes Cricket Competition. How does MindManager get involved? I have my Tablet PC connected to the PA and several maps which link together to provide a virtual jukebox / mixing desk.

One click on the right place in the right the map, and the crowd and players, hear “It’s All right Now” or a duck quack (for those out for nought) or perhaps a snippet of Geoff Boycott’s comments (someone’s alias in 2006 was Jeff Boycott).

My top level map has the opening anthem “Fanfare for the Common Man” played by ELP and then links to the team maps and various song and sound effects maps.

The (eight) team map is colour coded to match the team strips. For each game, I open that team’s branch and hopefully I have a numbered list of cricketer’s names whose shirt numbers match the list. I can make notes against the names for the various prizes or identification. One click on the teams hyperlinked tune sounds their anthem out of the speakers. So a good dismissal or a six is quickly rewarded with a blast of “Wild Thing” or similar.

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The MindManager icon in the centre of the map links back to the parent which links to the sound effects map and a map with all the tunes I am likely to use e.g “Here comes the sun” or “Here comes the rain again”

Secondly I have taken the organiser’s Word document, tidied up the styles and imported it into MindManager.

Then by arranging the map and notes pane suitably, I have immediate access to relevant parts of the rules. Breaking up all the paragraphs in to sentences helped readability. A click on any of the rules topics brings up the relevant sentences in the notes pane.

Easier than handling pieces of paper when under a blustery gazebo at the edge of the boundary

The screen grab has been resized to 600 pixels wide and does not reflect the quality of the actual screen.

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I also use MindManager to build a web site providing a record of the events – Cheriton Sixes 2006 & 2007.